Glenda Bailey-Mershon

I come from the mountains, from a textile mill-working family. My mother and her mother could weave a knot that was barely visible, but which held under great stress. I've tried to apply their skill with threads to words. Here is my wider world view. Thanks be to all the ancestors who brought me here.

The first Christmas card arrived…

The first Christmas card arrived today. And it occasioned this confession: I send cards out as I receive them.

It took me many years to get to this point. I used to send some 75-100 cards out each year. Eventually it dawned on me that though I received many, they often were not from the people to whom I had sent them. No, that woman I mt at the writing retreat whom I expected to be an occasional took the trouble to sign, address, and send a card to me long after I had sent my last card. Out to the store to buy more. Now, I send cards to those I truly love, to the business acquaintances who, I know, will return the favor, and then wait to see who gets their act together enough to work through their list till they get to me. Then I greet them back.

It's not the starry-eyed filled-with-good-cheer method of my younger days, but it is a way to acknowledge the ties that bind. And those I didn't know I was forming till I found a surprise in my mail.